Cape Breton's Magazine

to cope with it. The idea is for them to be able to cope with life ahead of them. And although I could give them at that time already--I had furniture in the store too. But I put them on hard mattresses, and never gave them any luxuries. And so they'd be trained for future life. Because I knew what life was. Irving: Is that because your father was spoiled and he was treated too good when All Types of Collision Work! Specializing in Spot Repair SYDNEY'S COMPLETE COLLISION REPAIR CENTRE 539-2848 • 539-1033 61 BEECH • SYDNEY BIP 6R7 SUMMERTIME PRODUCTIONS SOCIETY presents FEATURING: Berkley Lamey Fred Lavery Bette MacDonald Max MacDonald Natalie MacMaster Doris Mason Matt Minglewood Maynard Morrison Neil Robertson DIRECTOR: Ed Macdonald MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Leon Dubinsl<:y '91 ANEW MUSIC & COMEDY SHOW May 30-June 5 Savoy Theatre Glace Bay June 7-8 Port Hawkesbury June 10-12 Pictou June 13-18 Rebecca Cohn Halifax June 19-20 Antigonish June 22-26 Centre 200 Sydney TICKET OFFICES: 500 George Place • SYDNEY Savoy Theatre • GLACE BAY 564-6489 • 849-1999 he was...? Was your father treated too good when he was a boy, and didn't know how to make a living afterwards? Rose: That's right. My father was treated, at home in his house. There was just 3 in the family, and in those days, you know the Jewish people used to--well, they treated him just like a girl. So. you know, he couldn't--he really wasn't a businessman. But he was a very nice man. Knew his torah --his Bible and everything. Trained him the Jewish way. (But he was not trained to be a businessman.) Exactly. (And he didn't have tools.) No. exactly. No tools either. (And you were afraid your boys....) Would grow up the same way. And I gave them a hard time. Oh. they just had to.... Not because I couldn't afford it then. I could afford to give them better clothes, and all that. But I just wanted them to go up through life, to be ready for life. (Did you permit them to fight?) That I didn't like, but they used to do that on the side! (With one another, or with the neigh? bours?) Not so much with the neighbours, no. But with one an? other, of course. (Did they play sports?) Very much. Yes, I believed in that very, very much. I'll tell you the reason why. To this day, I don't know how to swim. I go to Florida and I sit there like a fool. Can't swim. Can't skate. My mother wouldn't let me swim be? cause in those days, we only had to go to the river or someplace to swim. So she was always scared that I'd drown. She wouldn't let us skate because I'd fall and break a leg or something. So I never forgot that, because I felt, you know, all those things that I missed.... (Some people have the idea that Jewish people are good in busi? ness naturally. But you don't feel that's true. You feel that your father wasn't a natural businessman at all.) No. And I had 4 sons. and one boy was not a natural businessman, no sir.... But Irving was always a busi? nessman. For instance, someone would give him a little gift--a knife or something. The first thing I'd know, he'd be in the yard--a little fellow like him-- he'd be trading with another fellow for what the other fellow has. And he'd be always trading. I said, "There's a businessman!" Rose laughs. Always used to be trading, all the time, no matter what he had. And Harold, too, he 26